an Augmented Reality Resource

Menu

News

Could this be the beginning of Switch VR, or just a spiritual successor to the Virtual Boy? It’s fair to say the ongoing rumors surrounding VR compatibility on the Nintendo Switch have been confusing to say the least. The Japanese video game company has, on several different occasions, declared that there are zero plans to

Life uh… finds a way in WowWee’s newest augmented experience. Paleontologists have identified labeled over 700 of dinosaurs over the years and you’ve probably seen hundreds of them in your local museum, or several in the Jurassic Park films. You don’t have to go back to the Jurassic, Triassic or any other dinosaur period to

Could Oculus Quest, Facebook’s newest standalone VR headset, ever be used to run PC VR experiences? It’s not likely, but the company did discuss it.

Oculus boldly proclaimed that Quest could deliver ‘Rift quality experiences’ at its reveal at Oculus Connect last week. In reality, though, the kit just isn’t as powerful as the PCs that run Rift, which is why games like Dead And Buried are making compromises to fit onto the platform. The idea of plugging a Quest into a PC to serve as a replacement Rift is an attractive one, then, but Oculus CTO John Carmack isn’t making any promises.

“We did not add any dedicated hardware to act as a PC display (it was debated a lot),” Carmack replied when asked about possible PC VR streaming to Quest on Twitter, “but we have a research project going to see what we can do with maxing out WiFi streaming. No promises…”

Wireless streaming to PC VR headsets has become an increasingly promising means of cutting the chord between two devices over the past few years. HTC is even starting to roll out an official wireless adapter for its Vive VR headset this month. That said, users need a strong WiFi connection to keep any additional latency to a minimum.

With its improved display resolution and inside-out tracking, PC VR support could make quest an attractive upgrade for existing Rift-owners. Oculus is courting developers to bring some of Rift’s biggest games to the platform, including Moss and Superhot, but wireless streaming could let users experience those games with higher fidelity visuals and perhaps even grant access to games that don’t come to Quest. Sadly, it definitely doesn’t seem like such a feature will be available at launch early next year.

Here’s an interesting detail we missed when Star Wars: Vader Immortal was announced for Oculus Quest last week; Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice developer Ninja Theory is working on the series.

A mention of the UK-based studio is dropped right at the end of the press release, simply stating that developer ILMxLAB is “proud to be working with Ninja Theory, an award-winning developer in the UK, and Epic Games, creators of Unreal Engine.” Ninja Theory itself declined to reveal to UploadVR exactly how it was contributing to the experience.

If we were to guess, it could be that the team’s impressive real-time performance capture, which has been demonstrated a SIGGRAPH over the past few years, is being used on the project. The system is able to record an actor’s performance and instantly translate it onto a virtual character. That said, Ninja Theory has worked on its own VR games including Dexed and this year’s excellent VR port of Hellblade itself, so it could be lending more traditional help to the project too. The studio was acquired by Microsoft earlier this year.

Vader Immortal is intended to be a multi-part series starring the Dark Lord of the Sith himself. It’s set between the events of Star Wars movies Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One and, judging by the teaser trailer above, it might finally give us our first taste of true lightsaber combat in VR. Look for the series to launch first on Oculus Quest next year.

God it’s nice to play something that reminds you that VR is, in fact, really fricking cool, isn’t it? Forget empathy machines, social futures and advanced AI for a minute; these are not Astro Bot Rescue Mission’s concerns. Like a certain Nintendo plumber before it, it wants to capture the heart of the platform it’s harnessing, dialing in on the electric excitement that comes with the best VR, a kind I’ve experienced precious few times. It’s a fitting reminder of just how fantastic this medium can be when freed from its many complications.

Astro Bot sticks with what developer Sony Japan knows it can do, third-person platforming, and uses VR to augment it in wonderful ways. For starters, it craves a certain kind of spectacle, the type that really wants you to believe what you’re seeing. Along with the likes of Moss and Wayward Sky, this is further proof that third-person VR not only works but can be just as powerful as the best first-person experiences. Diving head-first into the game’s diorama-sized worlds is an absolute delight whether you’re leaning back to watch your adorable robotic companion scuttle underneath you or judging the distance of a vertigo-inducing canyon jump.

It’s the proximity that works so well. Rescue Mission is a master at tricking your brain to believe the virtual is real, even if it’s just for a split second. Certain enemies will spit pink goo directly at you, for example, and your reaction to dodge comes from natural instinct. The same is true when you return footballs with your head or even smash into walls and structures to bring them toppling down. There’s a physical connection to your VR avatar here that Sony Japan mines for plenty of gold, making this a dependably surprising experience.

Nowhere is this truer than with the game’s brilliant use of DualShock 4’s position tracking. Not only can you see your controller virtually represented in the world at all times, but it’s a mechanic unto itself. In some levels, for example, you’ll be able to fire a grappling hook that latches on to certain points of the environment. Astro can then jump onto the rope and walk across it while you raise your hands to allow him to reach higher areas or help him avoid incoming projectiles. There’s a lot of genuinely inventive stuff like this (one section in which you race to the end of a tomb whilst clearing the path with ninja stars is a real highlight), and it gives each of the 26 campaign levels something to call their own along with varied environments and set pieces.

Gimmicky? Perhaps, but Astro Bot lays on the VR delights so thick and fast you won’t have any time to realize or, frankly, care. Each level holds eight hidden bots that have ended up in a whole manner of inconvenient places you’ll need to rescue them from. That requires you to keep your head on a swivel at all times, checking every corner and sometimes even under the platforms